Figure 1.-- |
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The African political structure is difficukt to describe over the very long period in which the Arab slave trade in Africa took place. The rrade was conducted over 12 centuries, roughly from 650-1900. It is important, however, to roughly sketch the political structure to understand the ebvironment in which both Europeans and Arabs conducted the slave trade. The Arabs conquered North Africa from a very early stage of the Islamic expansion. Arab traders penetrated into sub-Saharan Africa through desert caravans, the Nilr River, and by estanlish trading postas along the Indian coast of the continent. The black African kingdoms they encountered as they moved into the interior varied over time. Europeans had little access to Africa, blocked for centuries by Arab control of North Africa. This only began to change in the 15th cenntury with the European voyages of discovery with the Portuguese edgeing their way down the African coast. Like the Arabs along the Indian Ocean coast, European influence along the Atlantic coast was first limited to coastal regions.
The Vandals, a Germanic tribe, established Christian kingdoms in North Africa after the fall of Rome. The Arabs conquered North Africa from a very early stage of the Islamic expansion. Arab armies spearheaded the spread of Islam across North Africa. After seizing Egypt there was no military opposition or strong political state in the rest of North Africa to resist the Arabs. The Berbers people were a warlike nomadic group who inhabited much of North Africa south of the settled coastal areas. They at first resisted the Arabs, but eventually converted and became Arabized. The populatin was heavily concentrated along the coast.
Arab-Berber traders penetrated into sub-Saharan Africa through desert caravans, the Nile River, and by estanlish trading postas along the Indian coast of the continent. The black African kingdoms they encountered as they moved into the interior varied over time.
The Sahara like all deserts was thinly populated. Desert cities developed in antiquity that were sustained by the trade between the Mediterranen basin and sub-Saharan black Africa. Major commodities included salt, gold, slaves, and cloth. Trade was conducted by cammal caravans. Some agriculture was possible through irrigation. The climate of north Africa was not as arid in abtiquity as it uis oiday. One factor in the decline of Rome was the changing climate. Major trading cities included: Tahert, Oualata, Sijilmasa, Zaouila, and others. The cities were ruled by Arab/Berber chiefs (Tuaregs). Their actual independence varied over time and depended on the fluctuating power of the Maghrebi and Egyptian states.
The Arabs in North Africa called sub-Saharan Africa the Sûdân, meaning land of the Blacks. This is the origin of modern Sudan. The Arabs encountered a civilization in Sub-Saharan Africa that was of ancient origins and had only limited contact with the wider world. There were some large established kingdoms, but much of the area was controlled by loosely affiliated ethnically diverse tribes without any strong central organization. For the Arabs, Sub-Saharan western and central Africa offered a source of raw materials (including gold and ivory) and a pool of manual labor that could be exploited. Several kingdoms rose and fell over time. Some of the most important included: Ghana, Mali, the Kanem-Bornu Empire, and many short lived lesser states. These early kingdoms resist Muslim invaders, but gradually became largely Islamicized. Depending on the level of power which varied over time, they could resist Arab slave raiding, but they also trafficed in slaves with the Arabs. Thus captive Africans were one of the important commodities which flowed north with the Arab desert caravans. The Royal Navy played a major role in ending the Atlantic slave trade. Europeans colonization in the Gulf of Guinea during the late 19th and early 20th century finally brought the Arab trans-Saharan slave trade to an end.
The earliest known indigenous African empire was Ghana covering a large area of sub-Saharan West Africa beyond the boundaries of the modern country which bears its name. The actual boundaries were not well defined and varied with the level of power exerted by the central power. The center of the Empire was built around rivers which were the primary means of communication and commerce. The major areas of control were the Senegal River and upper Niger.
The Empire also had varying degrees of authority over neighboring peoples and exerted tribute. The origins of the Ghanian Empire are murky. It is known to have existed by the 4th century AD, but its origins probably pre-date the Christian era. The Arabs thus encountered a well-established African civilization in West Africa. The political organization appears to be a confederacy of important settlements. The Empire was divided into provinces which were furher sub-divided. The kingship (Tungka) and other high officers were hereditry. Records are limited, but suggest that the Empire was not built primarily by military conquest. The economy was built on agriculture, including gardents and date groves. Sheep and cattle were also raised. The agricultural economy was affected over time by droughts. Here the climate change appears to have been a factor. Trading was also important to the economy and the primary trading partner was with the north. In antiquity this meant the Roman Empire. After the fall of Rome this meant the Vandal kingdom of North Africa and than the Arabs who conquered North Africa. The most important town was Kumbi-Kumbi. The religion was like most of Africa animistic. The Tungka was at the head of the relion. Islamc gradually was accepted by the people and was pronounced by the 10th century. The Arab influence benefitted the economy and this allowed the Empire to expand. The Tunka converted to Islam (11th century). The increased power of the Empire was able to impose control over the trade routes. Ghana imported wheat, fruit, sugar, brass, pearls, and salt. They exported rubber, ivory, slaves, and gold. The Empire reached the peak of its power during the Sisse dynasty. A fanatical Muslim group, the Almoravides invaded the Empire (1076). They captured Kumbi-Kumbi and killed thoe who refused to convert to Islam. The ensuing religious strife and droughts resulted in the decline of the Empire (late 11th century). Invaders destroyed the Empire (12th-13th centuries). [Franlin, pp. 11-13.]
The Mali Empire rose as the Ghanian Empire declined. Its origins as a small, unimportant kingdom are much earlier (7th century). King Baramendana Keita conveted to Islam, convinced Moslems brought rain that ended a drought (middle-11th century). This was before the people were heavily Islamiized. The King made a pilgrimage from to Mecca and appointed Muslims to his court and made alliances with Muslim groups to the north. Kangaba was a mere tribal center and gradually expanded to become an imperial capital. Several small states (Soso, Diara, Galam, and others) had risen on the ruins of the old Ghanian Empire. These were conquerd by the Malians. King Sundiate Keita conquered Soso and leveled Kumbi-Kumbi, the old Ghanian capital (1240). The Malian Empire extended over what in the early 20th century was French West Africa, a greater expanse than the Ghanian Empire. The modern country of Mali is only a small part of the Malian Empire. The economy was largely agricultural, but there was also weaving and mining. [Franlin, pp. 14-16.]
Emperor Sonni Ali Ber (1464–92) cexpanded the Empire's territory through a series of wars. He reduced many captives taken in war to slavery. The conquered tribes also had to pay tribute and this provided more slaves.
Arab slave raids varied over time. Many were conducted by local groups for profit without any centralized organixation. Others were sponsored or encouraged by important political figures. The Sultan of Cairo is known to have sponsored sub-Saharan raids extending as farcas Darfur in the modern Sudan. Villagers resisted these raids on a local basis, forming militias and building a variety of defenses.
The Ethiopian Solomonic dynasty exported Nilotic slaves from their western provinces or from conquered areas. After the beginning of the Islamic era, this at time meant Muslims captured in war. [Pankhirst, p.432.] Muslim Ethiopian sultanates also exported slaves, but only non-Muslim Africans capture or obtained in trade. The Adal Sultanate also played a war.
East Africa was more exposed to Arab penetration because armed Arab merchants controlled the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The Arabs set up trading posts all long the coast. The first outposts were transitory and faced opposition from local tribes. Many were small-scale efforts on the part of exiles or military adventurers (8th and 9th centuries). The Arabs commanded the sea, however, and gradually the Arab trading posts became more permanent. The Arabs gradually spread Islam among the African tribes living close to the coast. Ancient Nubia had been a source oif black slaves in antiquity. The port of Massawa and the Dahlak Archipelago became imports hubs in the slave trade. Both Arabs and Persians set up trading posts along the Indian Ocean coast and slaves were one of the primary trade items. Great Zimbabwe was the only major black African states in East Africa. The Great Zimbabwe complex ws built by Shona-speaking cattlemen (13th-14th centuries). Information on Great Zimbanwe, other than the stone ruins, is very limited. For the most part there was no strong African state to resist the Arab slave trader who benefitted from wars between African tribes. Sone tribes cooperated with the Arabs.
The best known trading post became Zanzibar. Its island location made it very secure. In the later period of the slave trade, the Sultan of Oman gained control over much of the Indian Ocen coast. He oversaw the slave trade both to sell slaves, but to obtain labor for his palm oil and spice plantations. They became so profitable that he moved his capital to Zanzibr. East Africa thus served as an important region for the Arab slave trade until the intervention of the British in the late 19th century.
Livingstone and Stanley were the first Europeans to reach central Africa (Congo Basin) and report back to the European public on the extent of the Arab slave trade there.
The Arab Tippo Tip was a particularly notorious Arab slaver.
THe African political situation changed radically after the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). First France began to colonize North Africa. For much of the mid-19th century, Europeans confined their area of control to coastal areas. Then the Scramble for Africa began in the late 19th century as European countries staked out formal colonies. This provess was culminated with the Bohr War in which the British seized control of the Bohr Repunlics (1900-02) and France created a protectorate in Morocco.
Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans (Vuntage Books: New York, 1969), 686p.
Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century (Asmara, Eritrea: Red Sea Press, 1997).
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